Book Review- The Normal Pig

By K-Fai Steele

All of us want to be accepted, want to feel included and probably acknowledged. Pip is a normal pig. She has a normal life, normal routine and is a pretty happy pig with a normal, happy life.

That is until someone new joins her class and starts putting Pip in a spot. Her food choices, her artistic choices etc are questioned. The nail on the proverbial coffin was when someone looked at Pip’s mom and asked her if she was her baby sitter!

The most heartbreaking moment is when a crying Pip tells her parents to make her a normal lunch while making a normally acceptable drawing as against her artistic version.

All this while, subtly only via the illustrations we get to know that Pip indeed has certain differences. For one, she is the only spotty one, her parents seem bi-racial. But a trip to the city and meeting someone new brings a change of perspective for Pip.

Every once in a while, we meet people who make us question of choices. Make us insecure of who we are and what we believe in. But we are going to breeze through life, borrowing a line from this book- ‘Maybe it’s weird for you, not for me. I like it’!

Ideal for school going kids who probably feel a little bit different and learning to stand up for yourself. Age 4+years.